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Tuesday, June 30, 2015

I'm on a UFO busting assault on the blue bins.

I have reached a point in my life where what's around me must reinforce my life in a positive way. Part of me feels that if I'd really wanted to finish them I would have done so long ago. I'm designing behind the scenes and writing stuff that makes me happy.

Some of these UFO's are just going to have to find their way without me. You know what I mean?

I'm really serious quilters, my UFO's must go out into the universe.

I've left those memories aside along the path I'm on now.

My life is my own and I can share what I want to do, even if its a bit of a rant!

I am not seeing a clear path, but a path has opened up for me and things that don't simply move me forward with new ideas just cannot stay any longer.

Read about this lead up here as I tried to convey how many beautiful half done or almost done projects. Oh my Lord, I need some Blogger Love quilters. This long post listed others that you haven't seen recently.

I completed only one UFO. The lovely pattern from Jen Kingwell, "Midnight Over the Oasis"

Does anyone feel like this or do I have a serious UFO disorder?

Please leave me a comment telling me what do you do with your own bins of UFO's?

Sometimes, its just a lone block that waits. What would you do with a lone block?

Should I just go quietly off to the thrift store donation table and give them away or should I use them for GiveAways here at this blog or would you see their value for your own project? Or should I finish them over my lifetime and donate to charity projects for raffle?

Do you see something to work with in any of these photos? Would you buy a half done project or just few blocks of a color theme?

Monday, June 29, 2015

Hello my dear followers and friends, its such a hot day here in the Bulkley Valley that I just had to stop and do a little blogging! The fan is on and I'm grooving on another UFO. You see I was on the hunt for my Pretty Petals small wall quilt when I discovered another bin of more UFO's. This is the "Super Tote" by Noodlehead, I purchased this a few years ago and completely forgot about it.I was almost finished this bag when it went away to deep bowels of another bin.

But I'm glad I got it complete, even if it doesn't look as sleek as the pattern photo.

I like a bag with internal compartments, I need somewhere to put stuff.

I must admit I found the insertion of the zipper a bit of brain banger, read that section over at least a dozen times, then still made errors in understanding what the author meant.

Friday, June 26, 2015

When my chenille denim pot holder pattern was published in the summer issue of the Canadian magazine Quilter's Connection it reminded me of the fine tailored look that goes on behind any magazine cover page and content.

Heather McArthur as a publisher is something special.

She is open to new ideas, lives no stone unturned in her search for accuracy.

And I've spent a weekend with her and associates at a weekend retreat in 2010. She and her crew were so organized. We spent so much time laughing and enjoying great food, even for those of us with food challenges that it made me feel comfortable with sharing any of my patterns with a magazine.

Heather is incredibly easy to work with, she articulates herself well and smiles all the time. She encouraged me to take the step to get my pattern "Snow Town Folk" published and I'd love to see anyone's version of this quirky ice fishing portraits. And I asked if she would give me an interview with the following questions. Please enjoy and don't hesitate to submit any of your patterns.

What prompted you to start the magazine?

I was a subscriber of a small BC-based
newsletter called Connections for Quilters for several years. One day in
December of 2008, I opened the latest issue and saw a small ad that the
publishers (Ray and Fran Helgeson) wanted to retire and were looking for
someone to take over the newsletter. I had one of those "Ah-hah!"
moments and the lightbulb went off. I had just finished a contract as a
marketing and communications coordinator for a not-for-profit and was wondering
what to do next. I decided to take over the newsletter, but create something
bigger - a national magazine for quilters. By September 2009, the first
issue of Quilter's Connection Magazine was published." and the rest is history.

What was your quilting history prior to
starting the magazine?

I had been a quilter for over 20 years, and
sewing since I was very young. Home Economics was my favourite subject in high
school - and the only course I ever got straight A's in! My parents bought a toy
sewing machine for me when I was about three (I still have it), and I upgraded
to a 'real' sewing machine when I was seven (long gone). Although I've been
quilting for that long, I still consider myself a beginner when I see the
amazing work that other quilters do! There is always something to learn in the
world of quilting, so I will always be a 'beginner'.

What are your favourite styles?

I consider myself pretty much a traditional
(machine) quilter, and LOVES the look of scrappy log cabin quilts. The log cabin
is my 'go-to' block whenever I need to make a quick quilt as a gift. Lately
however, I have been delving into the world of artistic-style quilts. One of my
next projects will be a landscape quilt. I have a photograph of a rickety old
dock on the lake at my grandmother's cabin in northern Manitoba, and would love
to see it done in fabric!"

What would you do on Canada
Day?

Well, I feel guilty when I say I likely won't be
quilting! My husband and I own a boat and try to get out on it as much as
possible, so we will likely be away on the water somewhere. However,
inspiration comes from everywhere and who knows what beautiful sunset I might
capture on camera and try to re-create in fabric. I also always have some
hand-work with me when we go out on the boat, so it is possible that I might be
working on a Hawaiian hand-quilting block I started in a class a while ago.

Do you use quilting software?

I have EQ7 on my computer, which I use to create
all the patterns for the magazine's monthly e-newsletter, Loose Threads. I
cannot say I am proficient at EQ, but I can get by and love it that it makes it
easy, and fun, to create quilts and projects!

I included this photo of my pattern in another modern version of "Snow Town Folk"

Quilters Connection website is full of free patterns, my favorite is the Portable Ironing pad.

Does your magazine pay your
contributors?

We pay professional designers for new patterns
and projects for the magazine, or will provide space for an advertisement for
their business in exchange for a pattern. We do not normally pay for articles
published in Quilter's Connection. Most contributors - whether professional or
not - are quite happy to have their article published without payment, and we
try to promote their business, or guild along with the article. Shameless
self-promotion, we call it! Someday I hope that we can afford to start paying
all of our contributors, but we're taking it one step at a time as the magazine
grows and becomes more sustainable.

(This was done for me at the time my pattern was published and without knowing exactly where my clients for custom quilts comes from, its all good to promote your skills and talents.)

What does 'first rights' mean when a quilter is
considering submitting a quilt pattern?

Quilter's Connection Magazine has limited
exclusive copyright licence to any pattern or article published in one of our
issues. Three months after publication, the publishing and user rights revert
back to the designer/author.

Heather McArthur, Publisher of Quilters Connection magazine.

I hope you enjoyed this interview with Heather and wishing you a wonderful cool day! Here in Northern B.C. its been really hot weather and we're not used to it.

I chose fabrics from my stash, many of these were found on the online shelves of Mad About Patchwork.

I really enjoyed the process of hand sewing the triangles together.

I posted about my hand sewing of the triangles in the corner blocks. I could have machine sewed them, but really wanted to give my hand sewing fingers a good work over. If you are like me, and do a tonne of hand work, then keeping the fingers nimble is essential.You see the plaid blue print in the center, this was a beloved plaid blue from an older shirt I found at the local transfer station Free Shed. But I didn't really count on that fabric stretching out so much, you'll see later on the strategy I used to machine quilt the center piece.

Then came the Orange Peel inner border. I did all sorts of fun hand embroidery in a free from fashion and machine applique techniques to give the Orange Peel more depth.The flower applique border is so exciting, twirling and whirling like a vine. This proved to be a lot of fun and I learned some new tricks to making an Orange Peel block!The bright green leaves in the flower border were just left over green large rick rack and cut apart. I appliqued these down too with machine blanket stitch. I just can't seem to give up on recycling as much as I can into a design. But as you'll soon learn, the brilliance of recycling pays off big sometimes. You just got to give a try and carry on.

Then I progressed to the outer border and this is where I deviated from Jen's pattern. I really saw a chevron border way back when I started. I love making improv Chevron's and will post a new tutorial on that too coming up. I've got a pile of UFO's and I'm feeling good. You can't keep a quilter with a purpose down for long!Now to the machine quilting. It got complicated as soon as I tried to sandwich this puppy. (Part of me knew this all along and didn't want to deal with it, truth be told)The center square proved quite a challenge and finally, I decided the square was just too frumpy and baggy, so I decided to elevate the whole center block by adding in layers of extra batting. in short, this Free Shed shirt became a real winner when it bounced up "trapunto style" I guessed the amount of extra loft of course!Bits and pieces went into this trapunto center.

I actually sprayed fixative underneath both layers and called it a day with a second layer in the center only.

Then this was the fabulous result! I loved it and all this time, I was worrying about how it would turn out after using my beloved blue plaid. I did a varied wavy stitch with FMQ around the outside of the green center. Then decided that was just the right way to deal with the rest of this heavy block.

I think it turned out really well, considering if I'd stayed with conventional thinking, I might have this one still in a bin!

I just love this look, its way more impressive in person.

As I moved out towards the edge of this quilt, I just kept the machine quilting to a minimum. In each sashing, just one thin wavy line of quilting.

Connie Reskin is a blogger extraordinaire! Her blog is impressive and I'm thrilled to link up and show off one of my UFO's for this list.

Have fun ladies and gents who follow me and thank you Connie for hosting this Linky Party!

Wednesday, June 24, 2015

Then I decide on another color for the 2nd piece. I place good side down on top of one side of the original center piece. Pin it down and sew, clip threads not too close.

Then add another good side down, etc. But this one adds a little pizazz to the block. sew down until you are happy with the new potential shape is created.

The fold over this new section so you can see that a "V" has been created. See where I've put a sticky "STOP" and then you take this yellow section, fold over and see where you are.

The I decided to go to the other side of the new CQ piecing expedition and placed the blue piece in, sew it down, making sure to always cover ANY raw edges.

After the blue is sewn down, pressed, onto the next flowery fabric, again cover all seams, sew it down and press. I am a total believer in sewing it down, I tried doing a block in the field while I was waiting for a fish and so I didn't have a real pressing opportunity and I had to use my fingers to press, well its not going to shown any time soon on my blog!

When I come across another "V" in my work, I use various techniques to cover off these, such as fold over and create another straight new seam or I pin down a curved edge like this one.

And this ladies and gents is how it goes. The rest of crazy quilting is all about your skill or lack of using all sorts of supplies and doing it your way. That is really the beauty of crazy quilting, its about developing your own style. I'm well into my 20's of actual complete crazy quilted projects.
See how a lovely block can be created and without all those strips. I'm not a fan of strips as it does create something unique, but it tends to keep you on the 'get going, make it fast' kind of mind set and I'm well into loving "slow quilting"

As you can see, this technique is different from what you're seeing out there. And my technique is not about going out and buying $$$ worth of nifty supplies. I do encourage you to pick up lovely bundles of ribbon, here where My Sweet Prairie gal, blog friend has started a great Etsy shop and Monika has developed her own style of dyeing threads etc, you'll be happily blown away for sure!

Here is the complete sewn part of a new block. I've not trimmed this block yet, I believe it is 12.5 inches on the foundation of muslin, which I'll turn over and trim.

This where I say, "Relax" use clothing to find the excellent choices of fabrics that are really the best for crazy quilting. If you have studied crazy quilts, you'd know that few if any were done with "only" cotton fabric. Many traditional crazy quilts used wool, satin, velvet, feed sacks, clothing scraps and all kinds of textures and kinds of fabric. This is key to a lovely crazy quilt.

Saturday, June 20, 2015

T-shirt quilts are such a pleasure to make, really, they go together quite fast, once I finally had to time to get to work on these two.

Two brothers will be the recepient of these t-shirt quilts and I'm so grateful to my client who was in no hurry for them and for that I thank you!

When you make a t-shirt quilt, you get to know that person just a tiny bit. Its such a proactive way to relive the memories of the t-shirts themselves.

Some shirts have 3-D parts to them and you must find a way to incorporate these features as well.

Sorry these are so crappy I was under pressure to get this photo before it rained again.

The backs are not the same and offer different affects to each.

I was really proud that this past post on the giveaway was so popular and its reminds me that I really do have followers. And while I'm on that point, I didn't realize this earlier but my settings were wonky and if you didn't have a Google + account, you couldn't comment on my blog, so thanks to Karen who contacted me about it.

Wednesday, June 17, 2015

I follow an organization called the Canadian Women. I started doing this a few years ago because I have learned alot. I've read dozens of great posts and their site has loads of resources for anyone searching for help or those searching to help.

But the topic I'm writing about today is about sex trafficking in Canada. Its a very serious threat to us all, but paticularily young women are the most vulunerable. So please educate your daughters or neices about this topic.

And the worse of it is that trafficker's in Canada can earn $280,000 per women they abduct.

How can we help as individuals?

Join a local Prevention of Violence Against Women community Organization.

Help promote the work of Canadian Women Foundation by joining.

Help your local organization by asking what kinds of things do shelters need in terms of what you can give or do.

Start a non-profit national organization that would facilitate the distribution of hand made quilts made in Canada.

I know that point 4. left the rails a bit, but what of this idea. Maybe you already know of an organization like this? If you do, please let me.

And while I'm on this subject, I'm making a quilt that reflects the saddness I feel being a person that lives on the Highway of Tears. I will blog about it, I'm still in the planning stage of this quilt. Maybe you want to participate and make your own quilt that reflects your feelings and perspective. Think about this idea Canadian Quilters. It will come and when its up and happening I'm going to organize a Linky Party for our feelings, perspective and saddness. My sadness comes from seeing so many young, sometimes Aboriginal women alone hitch hiking our Highway of Tears. I wonder if they arrive at their destination or not. I wonder what I would feel if I was a Mother of daughters living on this highway. These are the depths my soul has searched for a way to express what I feel and how I want to give back and help prevent violence against women.

67% of Canadians agree that Canadian girls under the age of 16 are being recruited/trafficked to work in prostitution against their will.

And if that isn't the worse of it, this abduction must be well planned and researched of their victims. These young women mean dollars in their pocket.

I know this is a sad thing to read about, but please don't shy away from helping to educate others by reading these documents in great detail, facts and figures can be found at this site below.

Saturday, June 13, 2015

In Canada, we are thankful to one of the daring and innovative quilter/publisher gals in the country. Heather McArthur who started up this full size glossy paged magazine.

I've had my Denim Potholder pattern published! (Top left of cover shot) Its so cool to actually see your work in a magazine.

This is actually the second pattern to be published. The first was my "Snow Town Folk" pattern of quirky snowmen ice fishing in Canada.

I just love denim pot holders and will follow this story with another great idea for denim that I've not seen out there but its coming soon. Denim potholders are just the beginning!

Here's the giveaway!

Quilter's Connection magazine has donated one summer edition of Quilter's Connection magazine to this giveaway.

And Good Earth Quilting is donating 4 fat quarters in Organic 100% cotton from the "The Lorax" collection.

These are really fun to make into children's quilts.

The rules are simple, go to Facebook and "Like" my Good Earth Quilting page and leave a comment to enter this giveaway at my Facebook page. Plus for a second chance to win, is to become a follower of this blog, Good Earth Quilting.